The present invention relates to a baler for forming parallelepiped bales and more specifically relates to such a baler which utilizes an auger for compacting material to form such bales.
A baler of the aforementioned type is known and is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,481 issued on 3 Jan. 1995 to Sibley et al. This prior art baler has the drawback that the bales produced have somewhat rounded corners due to crop material exiting the cylindrical auger housing in which the compaction auger is located not filling the corners of the rectangular cross section baling chamber following the auger housing. The shape of the bales is not satisfactory from an appearance or stackability stand point.
Another baler which uses an auger to compact fibrous material into a bale of rectangular cross section is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,009,062 issued on 23 April 1991 to Urich et al. This patent discloses a tubular die wholly or at least partly of rectangular cross section located at the downstream end of the auger housing for extruding the fibrous material into a bale-forming chamber having a rectangular cross section more-or-less dimensioned commensurate with the aft end of the die. This baler, when making bales of alfalfa hay, has the drawback of not producing bales with firm, square corners since it is mostly the leaves of the hay that end up in the corners which results in the corners not being bound together sufficiently to maintain their shape and density. This baler has the further drawback of requiring extra length to accommodate the die between the auger housing and baling-chamber.